Chapters Diamond Tiara yawned with boredom. There were only so many things she could do at her country house without Silver Spoon with her. Silver Spoon-how I miss you, and how shocked you would be if you knew just why I missed you so much. It's not just that you are of the richest class like I am, and that you largely share my views. It's not just that in my eyes you are so good to hang around, being both witty and intelligent. It's that I'm a...a filly fooler. If my family knew they would be appalled and you would probably hate me or at least not be allowed to hang out with me anymore. She went over, picked up a pencil with her mouth and carried on with her latest drawing of Silver Spoon. Suddenly she heard a loud crash. By Celestia, what was that? She cantered down the stairs and entered an inner courtyard, and saw it. A changeling, and by the look of it, quite badly injured. One side of it's chitin shell had a deep crack in it, and green ichor was oozing out of it. So this is what a Changeling really looks like-it's hideous. Wait a minute-if I can somehow heal this Changeling and befriend it, it can help me. But not if the servants find it first-they'll squish it like the bug it is, or at the least throw it out and leave it to die.
She walked over to it and looked into it's compound eyes. "You can't stay here...up, come up to my room, and I'll offer you shelter...oh, and love. Lots of love." At the world love the Changeling managed to rock a few times and get up on it's armored feet and she somehow got it upstairs to her bedroom. Somehow I need to heal this...thing...and to do it, I need to love it. But how can I love a large injured bug? She found a picture of Silver Spoon and showed it to the changeling, sensing the waves of pain rolling off the creature. "Can you change? I want you to take the shape of this very special pony for me. I know you're in agony, but if you can change I can feed you." The changeling let out a chitter and part of one hole-filled leg shifted, turned grey with a hoof at the end. Diamond breathed deeply, took the hoof and pressed a kiss on it. Think to yourself...this is Silver Spoon, this is Silver Spoon...you love her...you adore her... The changeling let out a little hiss and the whole leg changed into that of a gray-furred pony. It's working...the love is healing the changeling, and quickly. A leg bent and gave the crack in the shell a hard scratch, the end turning into a claw, and the neck of the Changeling thickened, grew gray, sprouted a silver plaited mane.
Diamond was a little surprised by how quickly her love was healing this changeling. As she continued to pour love into it, it took more and more of the shape of Silver Spoon, until the only bit of it that was not pony-like was the claw that was scratching at a deep red crack in it's flesh. A crack that turned into a long white scar and then finally healed over. Diamond went over to her jewelery box and brought out a necklace of pears which she placed around the changeling's neck. "There, now you look perfect. I may be rich, but I'm not stupid. I know the danger I'm in from you. You could quite easily decide to turn on me, fang me and take my place. But if you do that, not only do you have no gratitude for somepony who probably saved your life, but you will be fanging me when I'm perfectly willing to give you all the love you could ever eat.I've loved Silver Spoon for months now but I doubt she swings that way. But with you..."
The faux Silver Spoon kissed Diamond tenderly on the lips.
*****Just like Daddy to cut our holiday in Stalliongrad short by two days just to clinch a business deal. I suppose I should be happy though, even the most comfy bed in a five-star hotel is not as good as my own. And I'll be able to hang out with Diamond once more. As she went out of her her mansion to walk to Diamond's place she saw Golden Sun, one of her few friends, trot up to her. "You never told me that you and Diamond were a couple of fillyfoolers. I thought you trusted me enough to tell me that."
Silver Spoon stared at her. "Fillyfoolers? What are you talking about? We are best friends but that's as far as it goes. We are most certainly not lovers."
"Then how come I saw you and Diamond kissing in the street outside the Haughty Couture shop only yesterday? Did you think I would not be your friend anymore if you were open about it?"
"What are you talking about? I've been in Stalliongrad for nearly a week. So there is no way I can have done that..." Silver Spoon went into a canter and then a gallop as she headed towards Diamond Tiara's mansion. Getting inside won't be hard, they know me so well. Surely Diamond Tiara has not...can't be...ewwwwww. She rapped with a hoof on the front door of the mansion;as the best and only close friend of Diamond Tiara there was no need to go around to the servant's entrance like a common pony. When a servant opened the door she almost shoved him out of the way, heading to Diamond's opulent bedroom at once. Pushing open the door her jaw dropped open at the sight of Diamond and...herself locked in an embrace and a deep kiss. The faux Silver's hair was loose and hung down her neck.
"By Celestia, Diamond, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!" The faux Silver metamorphosed into a black insect thing with hole's in it's legs, insect wings and fangs, and made a rush for Silver, only for Diamond to stop it by grabbing onto one of it's legs. "No...stop, don't hurt Silver Spoon..." Silver turned and fled downstairs as fast as she could whilst behind her the Changeling changed into the shape of a random Pegasus pony and flew out of the nearest window. Diamond galloped down after Silver.
Silver Spoon could barely see well enough through her fear and her tears to avoid crashing into the walls. How could she do such a thing? It's disgusting...and what if that...thing...catches me? I have to let everypony know about this for my own safety. Behind her she heard the clop of hooves. Not me, you won't be catching this pony. I may be noble and untrained in fighting, but as an Earth pony I can still kick hard. I'll let it get close and then give it a kick in the jaw.
"Silver Spoon, wait, it's me, the real me, I'm not a changeling, honest!" Diamond only just managed to leap aside and dodge a kick that would have broken flesh and cracked bone if it had made contact. "I can prove it. Remember our saying? Bump, bump, sugar-lump, rump!" Silver Spoon turned around and glared at her.
"That is no secret, the whole of our class knows it. Tell me some things that only you and I would know."
"Well, I once smuggled some illegal display fireworks back from the Camel Lands-being mainly desert, with not much around to burn, they have much weaker firework laws then Equestria has. And on Holy Celestia's Royal Birthday in the middle of a brightly starlit warm summer night, we smuggled them into Applejack's apple orchard but it didn't go according to plan. The orchard was set on fire and by the time the Ponyville Pegusai Fire Brigade got there a third of the orchard had been burnt to ashes. We were very lucky not to be caught for that little stunt and didn't tell anypony about it."
Silver Spoon nodded, but she still glared at Diamond. She asked quietly "How could you do this to me? What you did today, it makes me sick-it's so disgusting that it almost makes me want to throw up. You've not only put yourself in danger and everypony around you in danger as well, but in the short term at least you have ruined my reputation. Now my friends think that I'm a f.....a filly-fooler. I'll end up as the school laughing stock for something that I never even did. It may be perfectly legal for two colts or two fillies to be a couple, but not everypony is open minded, especially amongst my friends and family. If my parents hear of the rumors going on about me, I could end up grounded. And before you ask me, I don't love you in that way, I never did and I never will. I want a coltfriend, not a marefriend.And if I ever find out that you are doing what you did with Changelings again, I won't just refuse to have anything more to do with you, but I'm going to tell the Royal Guard. Rich and powerful as your family is, harboring a Changeling is not something that they can turn a blind eye to." And she turned her back on Diamond and left the mansion.
Diamond held her head high in the air as there was no way that she wanted to break down and cry in front of any nearby servants. Such a thing would be beneath her and her Family Line. But when she was alone in her bedroom she burst into tears, crying for her severely damaged if not lost altogether friendship with Silver Spoon.
A pegusas flew through her open window and landed, and at once transformed into Silver Spoon.
"Never fear, Silver is here. Why are you so unhappy, Princess?" The faux Silver hugged Diamond and kissed her softly on the forehead.
"Silver Spoon, the real Silver Spoon might not be my friend anymore, and she has not only walked out on me, but threatened to tell the Royal Guard about us which would get you arrested or worse."
The faux Silver narrowed her eyes. "Give me the OK to do it, Princess and tell me where she lives, and I can have her replaced within days. You get your loved one, in secret until we feel we can go public about our coupledom, and her family get a much sweeter and more loveable Silver Spoon. I get more food then I can eat, enough to distribute to the Hive from time to time, and the would be informer Silver Spoon gets to hang in a cocoon and feed the near-helpless Changeling grubs with her love."
Diamond managed a weak smile at the thought, but then shook her head. "No, please don't. Up until today she was my best friend, one of the only ponies outside my family who really understood me. And for months I've loved her. I can't just abandon her to a Changeling Hive like that, to be food for grubs. Please, for my sake, don't do that unless you have to."
The faux Silver nodded. "Are there any other ponies that you have a crush on?"
Diamond blushed. "Well....Princess Celestia. She's so beautiful and clever and regal and a goddess."
At once the Changeling turned into a somewhat smaller version of Princess Celestia, complete with long horn, white wings, royal jewels and crown, glowing many colored mane and Sun cutie mark on her flank. Apart from her smaller size, as a Changeling could not change it's size by more them a few inches, she looked perfect.
Diamond's mouth dropped open in shock. "Holy Celestia!"
The faux Celestia kissed her on the forehead and draped a wing over her. "I am here for you, my faithful student, and I always will be."
This is so blasphemous and yet so much fun. My very own personal alicorn goddess Diamond thought. So wrong and yet so right.
"Princess, please can I ask you about Changelings?"
The faux Celestia replied in the sweet regal tones of the real goddess. "There are some things I cannot tell you, both because I do not know them, being in the Changeling ranks, and because it is strictly forbidden and High Treason to inform upon a fellow Changeling, let alone Her Majesty. But I can tell you things about our race in general that will endanger noling."
"Is it true that you feed only on love?"
"We can feed on other things....we can eat solid food, but whilst it keeps the pangs of hunger away it does not nourish us properly, and it does not nourish the grubs at all. f we don't feed on love at least once a month, we will starve. It is the great tragedy of our race that we cannot feed on the love of our own kind. We can and do enjoy it, there are as many Changeling couples in the hive as pony couples, but it does not act as a food source. Your love is rich and there is enough to take back to the Hive. A third will go to Her Majesty Queen Chrysalis, another third to the grubs, and the rest of us get the other third. Those who have not died by being catapulted out of Canterlot that is. A lot of young Changelings will be in mourning tonight for their lost fathers and mothers."
"Can I trust you not to suddenly fang and replace me?"
"Yes, you can. You know full well what I really am, and yet you willingly feed me with your sweet love. It is almost unheard of for anypony to do that. Given enough time, I will love you as much as you love me."
*****
When she reached her own mansion her mother, Silver Tray, hugged her and kissed her forehead. "Silver Spoon, what's wrong with you? You look so unhappy."
Should I tell everything and get my former best friend into trouble, or should I keep silent out of whatever loyalty I still have for her? Silver Spoon wondered.
Silver Spoon thought for a while whilst her mother looked on. If I tell my parents everything they will insist on letting the Ponyville section of the Royal Guards know. The Changeling will die fighting, be locked up or at the very least be chased far away from Ponyville and be too scared to return. Diamond Tiara and perhaps her whole family will be in disgrace and maybe in trouble with the law for sheltering a Changeling within Ponyville. They will be out of favor with the Princess and their status at court will fall, whilst the status of the loyal Spoon family could only rise as the family who uncovered the enemy of the ponies in our midst. On the other hand...
"Silver Spoon, please tell me what's wrong," Silver Tray said, worried by her beloved daughter's silence.
"Diamond Tiara Rich is a fillyfooler, and she's in love with me! She wants to kiss and cuddle me and make me into her marefriend. She says that I won't need the colts when she's around and she...she drew obscene pictures of me being my back and then tried to kiss me! That's disgusting." Only a partial truth, but I'm good at lying and besides the whole truth would get her into even more trouble. I'm not ready to do that...yet.
Silver Tray hugged her daughter and put her hooves around her. "That's horrible. If she bothers you again let me and your father know and maybe we can get a restraining order out on her. You should not have to share a classroom with that sick filly."
Over the next few hours, Silver Spoon decided to let everypony she could know that Diamond Tiara was a fillyfooler. Seeing Snips and Snails walking down the street together, two ponies who she normally had no time for whatsoever, she went up to them. "I have a secret, but you must not tell anypony. Diamond Tiara is a fillyfooler who wants a marefriend." She went on her way smirking. Surely those two would blab the *secret* to all sorts of people, and Diamond would find herself scorned at school the next day.
Sure enough the next day Diamond found herself being stared at and giggled at by colts and fillies alike. Those that she was on speaking terms with before suddenly had nothing more to do with her. Her former best friend Silver Spoon cornered her in the playground at break-time and said quietly. "You know that it's not too late for me to tell the Guards about your Changeling friend? You may wear the tiara but I now have the power. What would you do to avoid getting into trouble? Hang around and play with the blank flanks that you so despise? Date Snips or Snails and kiss him in front of everypony? Steal the financial secrets of your family and bring them to me?"
"Silver Spoon, we've been friends for so long...why are you doing this to me? Why?"
"Mostly because I still can't forgive what you did behind my back, and perhaps am still doing. Getting a Changeling to pretend to be me so that you can fulfill your Celestia-dammed desires with her...or him, who knows with a Changeling...yuck. Partly because you shaped me into who I am now, a pony who teases and bullies her fellow ponies at every opportunity and despises the weak. And by messing around with that Changeling and getting caught doing it you just made yourself very weak indeed. Think about it.And it's all your own fault."
Diamond did think about it. When she got home the faux Silver Spoon was waiting for her in her bedroom and greeted her with a kiss. "How has your day been? You really don't look happy."
"It's Silver Spoon, the real one. She is blackmailing me about you and thinks that she has me over a barrel. What is it like when a pony is replaced? Is it deadly? Or painful? Is the pony drained totally dry of his or her love and turned into a Changeling?"
"We don't kill as that would be pointless-the dead cannot love and leaving dead bodies around in such a peaceful place as this would just cause trouble and outrage and make other races fear and hate us even more. Changelings are born from eggs, not converted from other races. Love is very hard to exhaust.It can be exhausted, hence the divorces in your country. But the way we harvest it in our hive is, we put the captured pony or griffin or whatever it is into a tough pod of webbing, that both prevents escaping, and stops bodily damage and decay, and whoever is in the pod thinks they are living a more idea version of the life they were living anyway. Causing their love to seep invisibly out of the pod where it is used to feed the grubs or just any passing Changeling who needs a meal. Mainly the grubs though, as except in times of great scarcity, taking food from hungry grubs is greatly frowned upon."
"If you replaced the real Silver Spoon, are you sure she would not suffer?"
"Not one bit."
"Then I give you my permission to locate and replace the real Silver Spoon, as she is blackmailing me and making my life a misery. For your sake and mine, she has to go. You'll love being her full time. Not only are her parents very rich indeed but they deeply love their only daughter. I've seen it in the look in their eyes, the way they hug and kiss her occasionally and the care they take for her safety and happiness." Diamond told the faux Silver Spoon where the real Silver Spoon lived and watched her turn into a pegusas pony with a net cutie mark and fly away. Soon enough the blackmail threat will be over.
*****
I'll have to do whatever Rainbow tells me for now, otherwise I'll mess up my cover. Damm it, I'm not used to this sort of thing Chilek thought.
Chilek reluctantly followed Rainbow Dash to the reservoir. She could hardly do anything else, it would arise suspicion if she deliberately disobeyed one of Princess Celestia's Main Six and let Cloudsdale down at the same time. She soon found herself amongst a large crowd of pegusai.
"Most of you know what to do, you spiral around in a tight circle and then if enough of you do it, it creates a tornado that will turn into a waterspout and thus deliver the water to Cloudsdale. Let's roll. Do it for Celestia, do it for Equestria, do it if you want any water to drink in your Cloudsdale houses and have baths," Rainbow Dash told them. The pegusai, Chilek amongst them, took up their positions and spun around and around, faster and faster in an ever-tighter spiral. To Chilek, nothing either inside or outside the Hive, not even the one week a year that all Changelings not undercover practiced military maneuvers in case of war, had trained her for this sort of tight formation flying that was now expected of her. Changelings could certainly fly in formation, but apart from outright war (and her Hive had been at peace for decades) and for welcoming a new Queen at her coronation (and Changeling Queens had lives measured in centuries) it was not done.
If this goes on much longer, I think I'm going to pass out and crash.And if that happens I'll lose my false shape and be revealed in my true form. And what will happen to me then? Not execution, Equestria has no capital punishment in peacetime, but I'll end up in Foalsom Prison and wither away from lack of love, whilst Diamond Tiara will be at Silver Spoon's mercy. There was a loud gurgle and a sucking sound and the water whirled up into the tornado and from there to the Cloudsdale reservoir and an exhausted, dizzy and wet Chilek was able to at last stop spinning in circles. Rainbow Dash now had a huge smile upon her face. "Excellent, we did it the first time around this time. Fluttershy, you in particular have much improved since the last time you did this. Everypony, as a special reward you will have the rest of the day off unless an emergency breaks out. We could not have provided Cloudsdale with water without you."
Chilek made her way to the Ponyville mansion of the Spoon family. Even without Diamond's help she most likely would have found it as it was one of the largest places in Ponyville. But she found every window and every door had been shut and locked so there was no easy way in. Clearly Silver Spoon was no fool and had taken precautions against being kidnapped and replaced. Most houses at at least their small windows open in summer;not this one. She considered trying to get down a chimney but thought that even with her shape shifting abilities the chance of either getting stuck or injuring herself was rather high. She would wait for a chance to get Silver Spoon when she went to school or otherwise went outside. Surely Silver Spoon could not stay in her mansion forever. She decided to fly back to Diamond Tiara and tell her what had happened and her new plan to get around it, but on the way she saw Silver Spoon trotting along...with three other ponies.
One was clearly a servant, but the other two were fillies her own age. Her own age? I didn't think she had any other friends her own age apart from Diamond Tiara. This will make it a lot harder to slip into her life quietly, I think I'll need help from the rest of the swarm, but where are they?
She flew back to a worried Diamond Tiara and transformed back into Silver Spoon as soon as she had safely landed, feeling the love radiating off her girlfriend. "Bad news, Silver Spoon is on the watch. She so far has not gone out alone and I can't get into her mansion either as she's got it locked down tight. I'm going to need help from my fellow Changelings but first I will have to locate them. Whatever happens, I will be back and I will find you." She gave Diamond Tiara one last tender kiss on the lips, turned back to Pegasus form and flew out of the window, searching for the rest of the swarm. It would be a long flight that would take days but it would be worth it to help the love of her life.
*****
This is an utter disaster...I've lost most of my swarm and a great food source in one go. And if the Queens of the other Hives find out...it'll be even worse. We Changelings do not often war against each other, but if a swarm suffers catastrophic losses from some other cause, it's not unknown for other Changeling swarms to take over the damaged swarms Hive, grubs and territory. So many dead or dying with nothing I can do for them as the love stocks are so low. And the grubs...the poor grubs, we won't be able to feed them all properly. There was the buzzing of wings and another Changeling flew over, landed, and bowed low. "Your Majesty, I discovered a rich love source, one of the rarest kinds. She found me when I was injured and near death and knowing I was a Changeling she went and healed me."
The Queen came over and tasted the smallest sip of the love Chilek had brought with her. Even as a Queen it was one of the best things she had ever tasted. She thought off the urge to drink deeply of it;she was a Queen, and she had a responsibility to her swarm and to the badly injured members most of all. She told Chilek "Use the love that you have brought to heal the dying and the most injured of the swarm, they need your love a lot more then me." Chilek waled over to a Changeling who was lying there in extreme pain, it's back cracked in several places and close to death. As she fed it the love, the cracks healed, and the pulverized internal organs healed up, such was the quality of the love that she brought. Seven more Changelings were healed in the same way before the love was used up.
"Who is this love source,who does not hate or fear Changelings?" the Queen asked.
"Her name is Diamond Tiara, and her father is one of the richest ponies in Ponyville. And her former best friend, Silver Spoon has started blackmailing her and wants to force her to do all sorts of things for her, some of them illegal, others deeply humiliating. But she is always around other ponies so I can't take her place."
"I grant you this, that you can take the Changelings that you healed and overpower this Silver Spoon and her friends. Take the cocooned bodies back to the Hive, we need all the love we can get now. Ask Diamond Tiara...if she would like to live unmolested in our Hive. We would protect her, keep her amused, find a way to keep her fed, and her love for you will feed the grubs without her needing to be cocooned. And perhaps I can siphon off a bit of that love too from time to time."
Silver Spoon grinned as she walked up to an unhappy Diamond Tiara. "Hello, Diamond," she said softly. "This is me, the real me. Now you see the CMC over there, the Cutie Mark Crusaders? You're going to go over there and say sorry to them that you keep on calling them blank flanks, and then you're going to play nice and hang around with them like a good little filly instead of a spoiled brat. Maybe with you helping them, they'll finally get their cutie marks at last, and you'll have three new friends. And don't forget, Friendship is Magic." She looked at the front door of the school, which like all schools in Equestria, be they public or private, had the slogan written above it in capital letters. FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC.
Diamond scowled at her. "I thought you hated those blank flanks as much as I did?"
"Oh, I do, it's just that I hate you a whole lot more. None of the Crusaders were caught by me making out with a Changeling double of myself, unlike you. Now go over there and start making friends. And I'll be watching to make sure that you go through with it."
Diamond sighed and walked over to where the Cutie Mark Crusaders were playing hoofball with Snips, Snails and Twist. "What do you want, crown-flank," asked Sweetie Belle crossly, expecting more nastiness from Diamond Tiara, who had never had a nice word to say to them since she met them.
"I, well, this is really hard to say, but I want to say that I'm sorry for being so horrible to you, and I want to be friends with you and help you earn your cutie marks."
All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at her, wondering if she was telling the truth. "Ok then, you can start by joining us in our hoofball game." As Diamond played it, at first reluctantly, she found herself enjoying it. "When school is over tonight you can come back to my mansion and I'll see if I can help you get your cutie marks in singing and in fine art," she told them, Silver Spoon smirking at her as she said it.
After school Silver Spoon walked home alone, without Diamond by her side for the first time in a very long while. She happened to encounter Twilight Sparkle. "Hello Twilight, I really need your help. I heard about what happened with the Changelings, and I'm scared. Scared that they might one day come back and kidnap me. I'm a rich pony and my family love me deeply and that makes me a prime Changeling target. Oh, and I'm willing to pay two hundred bits."
"Well, I may be busy but I'm not one to turn down some money." She took a stone of clear quartz, as clear as glass, out of her bag, and her horn glowed softly as she cast a spell upon it and then a second one. "Give this to your parents and tell them of your fears and how the stone works. If they hold it up to you and say "Is this a Changeling?" it will glow a dull red if it is a Changeling and not you. If they say...Find Silver Spoon, it will float in the air and lead them to your exact location. Now, the bits please?"
Silver Spoon reached into her saddlebags with a hoof, pulled out her purse, opened it with her teeth, and Twilight Sparkle used her horn to levitate out two hundred bits and transfer them to her own purse, then went on her way, happy to have both addressed Silver Spoon's fears and to have made some money for a job well done.
When she got home Silver Spoon found her mother and father and hugged them and kissed them. "Mummy, Daddy, I am worried that one day the Changelings will come back and kidnap me so that they can grow fat on your love for me. So I brought this from no less then Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle." She showed her parents the stone and explained how it worked. "Once a day, after supper, I won't you to make sure that I am me, and then to at least try to rescue me from the Changelings if indeed I have been kidnapped."
Silver Tray nodded. "If the worst should happen, we will do our very best to rescue you, rather then accept a Changeling replacement."
*****
Sweetie Belle looked at her leg and let out a squeak of joy, then grabbed Diamond Tiara in a huge hug and planted kiss after kiss upon her forehead. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Did I mention thank you? I've been trying for years to get my Cutie Mark, and now because of you I've got it at last." Diamond smiled and didn't wipe the kisses away. After the initial chaos, she had started to quite like the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were nothing like as good to be with as her sweet Changeling girlfriend, of course, but they were nice to hang around with and very good new friends. Maybe friendship really was magic. "I'll see if Rarity can give you a new dress from Rarity Originals," Sweetie said.
Later that afternoon Chilek and her small Changeling force ambushed the real Silver Spoon and the two other fillies she was with, as they went into the tunnel below Ponyville's main road.They let their targets come close, before leaping upon them, fanging two of them straight away before they could fight or make a sound. Silver Spoon was quicker and in the middle of the three, and the first Changeling to try and fang her got a hoof in the jaw and was knocked to the ground, before another one sank it's fangs into her back leg and a third Changeling fanged her in the neck.Chilek used most of what was left of her internal love stores to heal her fellow Changeling's fractured jaw and bring him around. It was an effort and it lefter her feeling rather hungry but it was worth it to heal one of the swarm.
After telling her fellow changelings where the friends of Silver Spoon lived so that they could be replaced, and helping to wrap all three ponies up in cocoons, she said "Twillek, Chamba, you two will be going undercover, I want the rest of you to come with me, buy a blanket and I'm going to see if I can get Diamond Tiara to come with us willingly. If so, she will be the first pony to willingly enter a Changeling Hive in living memory." She and the others flew to Diamond Tiara's mansion and waited a while until the three fillies Diamond Tiara was with had left for home. Changelings were good at waiting in such situations. Then she flew into Diamond Tiara's bedroom and at once took the shape of Silver Spoon. Diamond cantered into her arms and kissed her love and lovingly. "What happened to the real Silver Spoon...have you replaced her?"
"Yes, I have, and I have a request that you might well be worried about. Queen Chrysalis herself wants to see you, and wants you to be a guest of honor in her hive."
"But why? I may be a rich pony but all the wealth is my family's. I hold no official post at all whatsoever. Why me?"
"The Changelings are amazed that you do not seem to fear and hate our race. I was helpless, badly hurt and in my real shape when you found me, but instead of galloping away screaming or calling the guards to kill me you took me in and healed me and loved me. So the Queen wishes to see you."
"But what if she lets me into the hive but refuses to let me out? Will you come into my parlor?, said the spider to the fly. If I do what you say and come to meet your Queen, how can you be sure that I will not end up like the real Silver Spoon, hanging helplessly in a cocoon so my love can be fed upon by the hive? Changelings see ponies, or rather, the love that come from them, as food. I'd be a walking meal to them. And what about my parents? There is no way they would let their beloved only child go into a Changeling Hive. How can you get me there?"
"One of us can be your stand in whilst you are away. The Queen gives her royal word that you won't be harmed. We will transform into pegusai and carry you in a blanket. And if you are too scared to come, we won't make you."
"I'll do it, but only because I love you and trust you."
Chilek kissed Diamond and let one of the other Changelings take her place, and then she and five others transformed into pegusai and between them held Diamond Tiara in a blanket and flew with her out of the window. Out of Ponyville they went, eastwards, over the Everfree Forest where the clouds formed and rained randomly and after several hours of swift flight to the mountain crags where no sane pony would go and where the secretive Changelings had made their hives.
The part of the Hive of Queen Chrysalis that was visible from the outside looked like a massive stone termite mound, with just one gateway to the outside. One well guarded gateway, the guards with spears fixed firmly to their sides by straps to hold them firm and keep them capable of thrusting and killing. The disguised Changelings took their true shapes and a very tired by now Chilek said to them "Do not fear, we bring you the famed Diamond Tiara who does not despise or hate our race."
Diamond's heart was thumping as she walked into the Hive, expecting both to be fanged at any second and to find herself walking through slime. Neither happened. Changelings came up in force to see Diamond Tiara, but none of them made a single hostile move. As for the floor, it was dry and clean and seemed to be lined with a kind of soft paper of the kind that wasps used to build their nests. The only slime in site was glowing brightly and was in large beads on the walls;it clearly served as a light source. There were plenty of tunnels, both horizontal and vertical, leading to communal dining areas, markets, private houses, grub chambers and all the other parts of the Hive. Diamond was surprised at how few Changelings there were for such a large hive.
A large Changeling with glowing green eyes, a bent and twisted horn and a crown upon her head come forward and Diamond curtsied to her politely.
"So you are the pony that does not fear and hate our race, and who trusted us enough to enter our Hive. Please, let me show you around. There are a lot fewer of us after the failed attack on Canterlot as you can see."
They entered a dining hall with plenty of large benches and tables but no plates or food.
"So what do you eat here, your Majesty?" Diamond asked.
The Queen pointed up with a hoof and Diamond felt a little sick. Up there were dozens of see-through cocoons, containing griffins,a mule, and plenty of ponies.
Diamond Tiara felt sick and nearly threw up. "I don't eat meat, I just don't, I can't. I'm not being rude here, all sane ponies are the same. Meat is a no-no."
"Don't be so queasy, we don't eat meat either. All of those up there are still alive, and more then that, protected from harm in their cocoons, they think they are in heaven. That makes their love seep out; you may not be able to either see or sense it, but we can, and it's what we feed on. In fact, that is normally all that we feed on; we do grow edible fungus as a secondary source of food, but it's not very filling. The great tragedy of our race is that was cannot feed on the love of a fellow Changeling, and since other races tend to fear and hate us;and we can't feed on hate, it's a poison to us, we are forced to take the shapes of those who have loved by others and replace them. As it takes a lot of love to feed a hive including the young grubs, we bring the ponies and others back to the nest and use their love to feed upon. With your permission, I'd like to feed on a sip or two of your love for your *Silver Spoon*."
"Well....does it hurt? Will it leave me unable to love anypony?" Diamond Tiara asked.
"No, I doubt you'll even be able to feel it. If I took a lot of love from you, like I did from Shining Armour, it would hurt and give you severe headaches, but I just want a sip."
"Oh...ok then, just a sip."
Queen Chrysalis transformed into an alicorn-sized Silver Spoon, having been told what she looked like earlier by Chilek and Diamond stared at her. The Queen reached out a hoof and smiled. "That is so sweet.." At once, all the other Changelings in the room started to turn into identical Silver Spoons. Seeing the fear upon Diamond's face she snapped back into her normal shape and snapped an order out to her Hive "Back into your own shapes, now! You're scaring Diamond Tiara, she thinks that you're going to drain her dry. And without me around you probably would do just that. It was your greed in the first place that caused the catastrophic love famine that caused us to attack Canterlot." As the Changelings obeyed her order she explained "Normally there is rationing in a Changeling Hive except on a couple of special days, but there was corruption amongst the guards who allowed certain Changelings to feed when they were not supposed to, and our entire food stocks for the year were eaten in three months. And hungry Changelings are very hard to rule over and have even been known to overthrow their Queens."
The stone glowed a dull red and Silver Spoon's parents stared in horror at their faux daughter,
"So, you're not...Silver Spoon, then where is she? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"
The faux Silver Spoon turned back into a Changeling and flew rapidly around the room, looking for a window to fly out of, but they were all shut to save on the heating bill. Down below Golden Spoon shouted to his servants, of which the Spoon family had several. "A Changeling is in the mansion! Everypony get in here and help me catch it. Close all the doors. Tell us, you...thing...where is Silver Spoon and what have you done to her?" Spotting a skylight, the Changeling turned into a Pegasus with the legs of an earth pony and kicked her way out with one powerful buck leaving a horrified family behind her. By the time the Royal Guards had been told, she was far from Ponyville and had changed her shape again to put off anypony chasing her.
*****
"Sir, the changeling will have changed it's shape at least once by now, and we can't just arrest any random Pegasus we see in the sky. Most likely your daughter is in a Changeling Hive right now, most likely already dead, and you will never see her again."
As his wife burst into tears for their lost daughter, Golden Spoon said "I will take this to the very highest level."
*****
Princess Celestia sighed. "If I get into a war with the Changelings, ponies will die. Other ponies will end up maimed, minus a wing or a leg or both, or permanently mentally battle-scarred and scared out of their wits. Yet more ponies will get a taste for killing and carry it back into civilian life and then we'll get murders happening. In the last hundred years, murders have been almost unknown in Equestria. Even the big cities have very few murders, maybe five or six a year. If we train a lot of ponies to kill and then put them back into civilian life, the murder rate will skyrocket. I have seen war, many centuries ago, and it is hell. That is why I have avoided war as much as possible. I cherish my little ponies. And besides, if we went to war they would most likely kill Silver Spoon and then the war would have no purpose other then to commit genocide and slaughter every last changeling just because you lost your daughter. I will not stop you from paying a ransom for her or otherwise trying to rescue her, but I will not start something as unpleasant as a war for one single filly. You are on your own. and this matter is closed."
The freeing of Silver Spoon
"So that is why you attacked Canterlot like that...some greedy Changelings ate the love supplies for the entire Hive. But after all the damage you did and the fear you caused, it'll take a long time to ever get either Princess Celestia or anypony in general to trust you again ever."
"I know, which is why I want you to choose a pony that we hold to be freed and to go back home with a message-we are tired of war and wish to gain love by other means. Such as by replacing ponies which have died, with the consent of their families. Or by setting up a Changeling Dating Service. Which single pony could resist it? Are you longing to date an ex-coltfriend or ex-marefriend but she can't stand you anymore? Do you wish to date way above your station with a famous pony such as Octavia Philharmonica or DJ Pon3 ? Maybe you wish to mate with the holy of holies Princess Celestia herself? Never fear, the Changeling Dating Agency is here, you can date anypony you like. If true love results, enough to feed the hive with what's left over, you don't have to pay any bits, otherwise if you want to go on using the service you have to pay up."
Diamond Tiara grinned at the thought. "I'm no lawyer, but I think Equestrian law would forbid such a dating agency, as ponies own their own images. Plus most ponies totally hate and fear Changelings, remember? A pony would have to be desperate to knowingly date a Changeling for the most part. Unlike me. And Celestia would be furious at the thought of false Celestias even if they were only peacefully dating ponies."
Just then a Changeling flew in, bowed low to the Queen, and said "Silver Spoon's family found out who I really was, they must have been tipped off about us by the real Silver Spoon before we kidnapped her."
"Well, in that case, please find the real Silver Spoon and let her go free, so that she can go back to her parents again. I owe her that for the trouble that I've caused her. I know the Spoons, they are good ponies."
At a nod from the Queen, two Changelings flew up and detached a green cocoon from the ceiling and brought it down with care, and slit it open with their fangs to free the pony within.
*****
"I'm in a hive, a Changeling Hive...Diamond, if it is the real you, what have you done? You had me kidnapped and replaced, didn't you, and some Changeling has taken my place to feed off the love of my family."
"Yes....yes I did, but the replacement was discovered and I asked the Queen of the Changelings to set you free and let you go back home. How was it in that cocoon?"
"Not bad surprisingly, but what you did was still wrong. Very wrong. Where am I and how, by Celestia, am I ever going to get home from here?"
"You are in my Changeling Hive," Queen Chrysalis said. "A perfect place for a Changeling-not so for a pony. We will fly you back to Equestria with a message-we want peace. We know that after what we did it will be a very long time before a Changeling can openly enter Equestria again, but we want to send three diplomats to Canterlot in the hope that one day relations between ponies and Changelings can be normal."
Silver Spoon curtsied. She had been taught from an early age to always show respect for royalty, and this Queen was letting her go home instead of keeping her here as food. She said to Diamond Tiara "If I were you I'd make your home here in the Hive, and stay away from Equestria and far away from me. I don't know if I will ever be able to like and trust you again."
"Go, my changelings and bring Silver Spoon home in a chariot...take Pegusai shape until you are very close to Ponyville and only reveal yourselves when you meet the Spoon family."
*****
"Peace is always a good thing-three Changelings hand picked by the Queen itself may be sent as ambassadors to Equestria, provided they stay in their Changeling form and behave themselves. The pony Golden Dawn and two other pony ambassadors will go to the Hive of Queen Chrysalis to represent Equestria. It will take time and trouble to settle the love problem, but I hope one day it will be sorted out and the Changelings will be able to enter Equestria openly, and ponies may visit their Hives and trade. I would advise Diamond Tiara to stay away from Equestria for the foreseeable future, but I will not be demanding her extradition. Exile away from her fellow ponies will be her punishment."
It was Chilek who brought Diamond Tiara the news that she was officially persona non grata in Equestria for her part in getting Silver Spoon kidnapped.
"Does this mean I will never see my parents again?" Diamond Tiara asked sadly.
"I'm sure that given enough time Princess Celestia will reconsider and meanwhile I can take the shape of anypony that you want me to be," Chilek replied.
(OOC-Apart from the Epilogue, to sum this story up, it is finally at an end. Thank you to everypony who read it.)
Silver Spoon was worried for several weeks that she might be kidnapped again but she got over it in time and, like many members of the influential Spoon family, rose high once she reached adulthood in the service of the Princesses. Surrounded by so many unicorns, it was good for the Princesses to have a few Earth pony links.
Diamond Tiara spent ten years in exile living in the Changeling Hive before the Princesses Celestia and Luna finally forgave her and let her come back to Equestria with her Changeling lover, on condition that Chilek swore to behave herself and only feed upon the love of Diamond Tiara. She was allowed to take a pony shape to avoid prejudice or worse as long as she stuck to it.
Equestria and the Hives established diplomatic links one by one, and it is thought by those in the know that it is only a matter of time before Changelings can visit Equestrian towns openly and ponies can visit the Hives, as both races have a lot to trade with each other as long as they can trust each other enough.
THE END.
Thank you everypony who read and enjoyed this, my most voted on and favourited fanfiction here so far.
